Internationally-acclaimed for his superb black-and-white work, Michael Levin spent 2 years gathering material for his recently-launched new collection of colour photographs. Having already earned 3 top awards as the International Fine Art Photographer of the Year, Levin continues to charm and surprise. BCreative provided a variety of content material marking this release, including this piece for his website.
After the sharp edges and bold clarity of his black and white work, Michael Levin has bloomed into a colour photographer revealing a languid interpretation of how light and colour dissolve through space. Though cast in a soft, ethereal luminosity reminiscent of 19th century Romantic landscape paintings – or Delft seen by Vermeer on a cloudy day – the muted colours, vast perspectives and minimalist phrasing in these new photographs recognise a contemporary desire for contemplative awareness. There is a meditative aspect to each of the images, an allowance to place ourselves amidst the atmospheric effects so we can gain a better appreciation of our place in this still big and rapturous world.
Both palpable and translucent – and always carefully measured – Michael Levin`s painterly use of colour becomes transcendental, an emotional device meant to trigger a more visceral awareness of beauty. Rarely does the commonplace look so captivating. In Lakeside Cottage, the morning`s first light is marked to pointillist perfection, a shimmery wash of rose pinks and warm yellows softly balancing the verdant strength of the grassy foreground. The small house at the end of the rutted path, though humble, appears bronzed and magnificent. In Remnants – reminiscent of a Rothko save for the spare ribbing of an old pier – Levin sets off the deep indigo blue of the sky against the dissipating corals and pearl grey of the sea. The colours seem limitless and hypnotic. Grand Canal proves most sumptuously the Romantic ideal of how light is a precious good. Here it silvers the clouds, rims the high hedge in twilight gold and crowns the solitary man quietly reading among all this grandeur.
These new colour photographs feel rarefied, enchanted and open up further expressive possibilities for Levin`s forever roving camera.
